Various types of competitive throw or toss games have been played over the years. One well known example of such a game is horseshoes. Initially, the thrown object was an actual horseshoe and the target was a metal post. Later refinements included the substitution of lightweight plastic imitation horseshoes for the heavy metal shoes. Another ancient game is bocce ball in which a first player throws a smaller target ball and the other players roll or throw their larger balls to land close to the target ball. This game has been conventionally been played outdoors on walkways or paths because of the use of large balls which could damage indoor surfaces. Other variations of throw and toss games include what are sometimes called bean bag games. The thrown object was usually a bag of cloth or other flexible material filled with metal shot or heavy granular material such as sand. In many previous games, the bags were thrown at targets. Such targets have varied from simple markings on the ground to indicate target portions of different values to container-like targets having openings or pockets into which the bean bag was thrown. More recent modifications to such games have included mechanical and electronic apparatus for automatically scoring the outcomes of the games.
This invention is directed to an improved bean bag game that can be played indoors or outdoors with a minimum amount of game equipment yet provides all the desirable features of previous games such as horseshoes, bocce ball or bean bag toss games without any of the disadvantages or limitations of such games.